Tai Ya
Tai Cung
Native to	China,Thailand
Native speakers	(50,000 cited 2000 census)[1]
Language family	Kra–Dai Tai Southwestern (Thai) Northwestern (Shan) Tai Ya
Writing system	Tai Le script (Yuanyang dialect)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	cuu
Glottolog	taiy1242

Tai Ya (Chinese:傣雅语), also known as Tai Cung, Tai Chung and Dai Ya,^[2] is aSouthwestern Tai language of southernChina. It has one dialect,Tai Hongjin (Chinese:红金傣语); Red Tai.

Speakers of Tai Hongjin live in theRed River (红河 or 元江) andJinsha River (金沙江) watershed regions of south-centralYunnan. Most areBuddhists, but few areTheravada. It is also spoken by around 5,000–6,000 people inChiang Rai Province,Thailand.

Unlike other more widely studied Dai languages, Tai Ya has no traditionalorthography, though it has a rich oral tradition.^[3] Papers^[4] have noted that this lack of orthography may endanger the survival of Tai Ya infuture generations in Thailand, as the Tai Ya people shift towards the use ofNorthern Thai andCentral Thai, due to the lack of literature in Tai Ya. However, it has been attested that language vitality as a whole (including the majority speakers in Yunnan Province) is high and "likely to be spoken by future generations".^[3]

Tai Hongjin can be split into five dialects, which are oftenmutually unintelligible (Zhou 2001:14).

• Yuánxīn 元新 (Yuanyang-Xinping):Honghe County 红河县,Yuanyang County 元阳县 ofHonghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture 红河州;Xinping Yi and Dai Autonomous County 新平彝族傣族自治县 ofYuxi City 玉溪市.
• Yǒngwǔ 永武 (Yongren-Wuding):Yongren County 永仁县,Wuding County 武定县,Lufeng County 禄丰县,Dayao County 大姚县 — all inChuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture 楚雄彝族自治州.
• Mǎguān 马关:Maguan County ofWenshan Prefecture.
• Yuánjiāng 元江:Honghe County 红河县,Yuanyang County 元阳县 ofHonghe Prefecture 红河州;Yuanjiang County 元江县 ofYuxi City 玉溪市.
• Lǜshí 绿石 (Lüchun-Shiping):Lüchun County 绿春县,Shiping County 石屏县,Jianshui County 建水县 — all inHonghe Prefecture 红河州. This dialect has more open rimes and nasal finals.

The total number of Tai Hongjin speakers combined is 136,000 (Zhou 2001:14). A related but separateTai language calledDǎi Jīnpíng (金平傣语) is spoken inJinping County (金平县),Honghe Prefecture (红河州), which Zhou (2001) reports as having 15,400 speakers.^[5] This language has its owntraditional script as well (see Zhou 2001:379).

Heipu 黑蒲 (autonym:Kalang 卡郎kʰa³³lun²¹; also calledBaiyi 摆彝 by the Han Chinese) is a variety ofTai Ya (傣雅) spoken by 118 people in the two villages^[6] of Shitouzhai (石头寨^[7]) and Xiaomiao (小庙^[8]) in Panlong Township (盘龙乡), District 5 (五区),Xinping County, Yunnan (You 2013:268).^[9] Heipu (黑蒲) is a Han Chinese exonym referring to their practice ofteeth blackening. In Xinping County, the Heipu also refer to themselves as theTai Kha (傣卡) (You 2013:336).^[9] It is mutually intelligible with Tai Ya as spoken in District 4 (四区) of Xinping County. However, Heipu is unique in that it has only four tones, and has lost the final stops -p, -t, -k. Heipu is not to be confused with two other groups of the same name:

• Heipu 黑蒲, an ethnicZhuang group inLijiang County, Yunnan with a population of 675 (You 2013:55).^[9]
• Heipu 黑蒲, an ethnicBulang group inMojiang County, Yunnan with the autonymWa 娃 (You 2013:335-336).

• Languages of Yunnan
• Southwestern Tai languages

• Pages containing links to subscription-only content
• Language articles citing Ethnologue 18
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Language articles with old Ethnologue 18 speaker data
• Articles containing Chinese-language text
• Pages with plain IPA
• Webarchive template wayback links